Sunday, April 5, 1998Last modified at 3:49 a.m. on Sunday, April 5, 1998

Clinton keeps political heat on smoking law

Clinton will take campaign to tobacco-dependent regions

WASHINGTON (AP) - Planning to take his anti-smoking campaign straight to the heart of tobacco country, President Clinton assured cigarette makers Saturday that he does not want to bankrupt them even as he suggested that a tough, $506 billion anti-tobacco bill needed to be tougher.

"We still have work to do on this legislation. Above all, we need to put in place tough penalties that will cost the tobacco industry if it continues to sell cigarettes to young people," Clinton said in his weekly radio address. It was the third time this year that he used the national broadcast to push for legislation that he says would stop tobacco companies from doing business with American kids.

Anxious to have a bill on his desk before Congress quits Washington to campaign for re-election, Clinton will venture onto tobacco's own turf and press the issue in a speech in Kentucky on Thursday, White House officials announced Saturday.

Cigarette companies, crying potential bankruptcy, balked at legislation approved by the Senate Commerce Committee last week that would impose significantly higher costs and harsher penalties than the industry negotiated in a proposed settlement with state attorneys general last June.

"We're not trying to put the tobacco companies out of business. We want to put them out of the business of selling cigarettes to kids," Clinton said.

The Senate committee bill, primarily written by Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., would cost tobacco companies $506 billion over 25 years, increase cigarette prices by $1.10 per pack by 2003 and force changes in cigarette advertising practices. Government penalties for companies that continue to hook young smokers would be capped at $3.5 billion per year; the industry's liability for damages in lawsuits would be capped at $6.5 billion per year.

An even harsher alternative, which Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., plans to offer on the Senate floor as amendments to the McCain bill, would exact up to $10 billion per year in those penalties that Clinton wants toughened.

Clinton said Saturday that he has been "appalled by how many children were becoming addicted to cigarettes every year." He pointed to a new Centers for Disease Control report that said more than one-third of American teen-agers smoke, even though it is illegal for them to buy cigarettes.

The president also used his radio broadcast to chastise the House for taking "a step backward" on anti-drunken driving legislation and asked lawmakers to reconsider during the 75 or so days left in this session of Congress.

The House Rules Committee blocked a vote this week on a stricter - and nationwide - standard for drunken driving. The Senate has already passed a measure penalizing states that do not lower the legal blood alcohol content limit for drinking and driving from .10 to .08.

"I urge the House leadership to reconsider its unwise action," Clinton said. "As we saw this week in the Senate (on tobacco), when we set aside partisan differences and keep our eyes on the prize of dramatically improving our children's health, we can make remarkable progress in record time."